Alcohol has long been used, in the medical world, as a painkiller and antiseptic. A new study conducted by biologists at Emory Univeristy found that in order to protect their larvae from parasitic wasps, fruit flies will lay their eggs in alcoholic environments. Over time, fruit flies have adapted to be able to process alcohol. Because they feed primarily on fermenting and rotten fruit, fruit flies have a high tolerance to the booze. However, parasitic wasps, who lay their larvae inside fruit flies and then eat them from the inside out, have not developed such a tolerance. Because exposure to alcohol kills these wasps, when wasps are present fruit flies will lay their eggs in an alcoholic solution, to prevent them from being infected with the parasite. In the experiment that the researchers conducted, 90% of the fruit flies layed their eggs in the highest alcoholic solution available to them in nature in order to protect them. However, when another wasp species that only infects fruit flies later in life was introduced instead of the parasitic wasps, none of the fruit flies layed their eggs in alcohol. Amazingly, the flies were able to see the difference in the species of wasp, and to know that they could not protect themselves against it. Unlike perviously thought, the researchers at Emory found that fruit flies have a much better visual ability than previously thought.
http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-02/fruit-flies-force-feed-their-children-alcohol
NOS Themes:
1. Science is based on evidence: the team at Emory tested their findings multiple times, and with many different variables.
2. Science is testable and repeatable: the experiment was clearly defined and easily repeatable.
3. Role of curiosity: The title of this article was so catching, I had to learn more about it.
What an interesting article! It's cool to learn about different adaptions of animals. The fruit flies adaption is especially intuitive because they had to first develop a tolerance to the alcohol and then realize the wasps die due to alcohol exposure.
ReplyDeleteDoes the other 10% of fruit flies still lay their eggs in an alcohol solution, just not the highest?
Here is another article related to the topic:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=fruit-flies-take-medicinal-nips-12-02-16
This was a very interesting article. I found information from another site that shows that some male fruit flies that have not mated will use alcohol to satisfy the flies' desire for physical reward. Studying why the fruit flies do this could lead to advances in treating human addiction problems.
ReplyDeleteLink to Article: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/03/120315145415.htm
I read your article and I was intrigued right away! I was very surprised to discover that 90% of fruit flies lay their eggs in the highest alcoholic solution available to them in nature in order to protect them! I was so fascinated by your article that I researched another article that relates with fruit flies! My intent was to find another article that involved fruit flies and alcohol. I found an article that goes further in depth and gives a different point of view! The article "Fruit Flies Force Their Children to Drink Alcohol for Their Own Good" by biologist Todd Schlenke, he goes into further detail in describing his experiment which had pretty similar results! He found that fruit flies soak their larvae in the most alcohol-concentrated environment available to protect from wasps and other things that might harm their eggs.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/02/130222102958.htm
I think that it's really great these flies are able to adapt and to make these highly intelligent choices. However I found an article talking about a scientist in Switzerland,Tadeusz Kawecki,making a study about how high intelligence could lead to death earlier then those species that are less intelligent. For example, an animal's natural instincts would serve it better in the wild instead of carefully processed thoughts. The professor uses the example of an intelligent but curious antelope seeking to learn more about the lion. This intelligence would in fact lead it to make the grave mistake of approaching the lion and most speeding it's own death. If we relate this to humans, we could also say that because or our own natural curiosity we may also one day find our "lion" and accidentally disturb it.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90348223
ReplyDeleteJeff Farr
To johndfarr@yahoo.com
I never considered the possibility that an organism actually using natural alchol to its advantage, especially when it came to evading predation. I'm even more impressed that the fruit flies will save the trouble of finding an alcoholic enviorment to lay their eggs in when they can actually recognize the futility of it depending on the type of predation.
related article about bugs being affected in some way by alcoholic circumstances: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/31/bed-bugs-alcohol-study_n_1559306.html
*ignore that email stuff
ReplyDelete